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Barenbrug of the Netherlands buys Agriseeds
Barenbrug Holdings B V of the Netherlands has approval to acquire up to 74% of Agriseeds Holdings Ltd, which breeds, produces and markets seeds. The price was suppressed until August 1998 when it was released only as $6.35 per share. Both companies specialise in grass seeds. Barenbrug is owned 73.8% by H.J.M. Barenbrug, 8.8% by B. and F. Barenbrug (the three of whom are all Dutch residents), and 17.4% by ABN AMRO Participates B V of the Netherlands. According to the Press (25/2/97, “Agriseeds firm purchased”, p.29) Agriseeds was already 29% owned by Barenbrug and the shareholding was only increased to 51%. Barenbrug’s involvement had “turned from a technical alliance into an equity one”, according to Agriseed’s managing director, Selwyn Manning. The remaining shares were held by New Zealand staff and management, Barenbrug having bought out shares owned by Swedish and Australian companies. Barenbrug is “one of the top two forage breeding companies in the world” (Canterbury Business Monthly, March 1997, “Seed company goes Dutch”, by Paul Morrison). “Agriseed was formed in a management buy-out from part of the Arthur Yates seed company in New Zealand shortly before the 1987 sharemarket crash.” The company is based in Darfield, Canterbury, where it has 25 staff. It has another 40 staff and subsidiaries in Australia and Argentina and its annual turnover is over $30 million. Yates itself is now owned by Brierley Investments Ltd’s former Australian subsidiary, Industrial Equity Ltd (now Australian owned), and recently combined (80% Yates) with the U.S. company Seminis Vegetable Seeds to create Australasia’s largest commercial vegetable seed company (Press, 11/1/97, “Yates joins with US firm”, p.25). The seed industry in general is going through a period of restructuring and, in significant part, sale overseas. Yates is mentioned above. Watkins Seeds is a subsidiary of Skellerup’s, now 84% owned by Goldman Sachs of the U.S.A. An American investor who recently emigrated to Canterbury, Jay Scanlon, owns a majority of the shares in the old-established Canterbury firm, A.B. Annand, which supplies grain, seed, pulses, potatoes and onions, and he has also taken a shareholding in Agricom (New Zealand), which develops forage seed. This has led to the announcement of an “alliance” between the two companies (Press, 13/2/97, “Annand, Agricom combine”, p.26). AAPC of Australia buys Novatel Auckland and Holiday Inn Queenstown Tourism Asset Holdings Ltd, a public company listed in Australia whose majority shareholder is AAPC Ltd of Australia, has approval to acquire Raffles New Zealand Ltd which owns the Novatel Auckland hotel, and Raffles Queenstown Ltd, which owns the Holiday Inn, Queenstown. The prices paid were originally suppressed, but released on appeal to the OIC: “approximately A$33.73 million” and “approximately A$19.17 million” respectively. The Auckland hotel is being bought from Probo Pacific Ltd of Sweden and Royal Worldwide Pte Ltd of Singapore. The Queenstown hotel is being purchased from BLE Capital Ltd and Raffles South Island Ltd. These companies are all related. In May 1996 we reported that Probo Pacific Ltd, registered in Singapore but wholly owned by AB Catena of Sweden, had exercised an option to take a 50% shareholding in both Raffles South Island Ltd and Raffles New Zealand Ltd for $2 each. The two Raffles companies were both wholly owned by Royal Worldwide Pte Ltd of Singapore which is owned by the brothers, R. and A. Kumar. Raffles South Island bought a 60% interest in the Holiday Inn Hotel in Queenstown in 1994 from Alpine Properties Ltd of Aotearoa, and 100% of Novatel Hotel in Auckland in 1993 (then called the Park Royal) from the DB Group for $23 million. On both occasions, “the purchase was partially financed by Probo Pacific, who at that time entered into an option agreement to acquire 50% of the shares in Raffles.” In 1994, the other 40% of the Queenstown hotel was owned by BLE Capital Ltd, 44.44% owned by Westpac, 44.44% by AMP, and 11.12% by 3I International Holdings Ltd of the U.K. When the Kumar brothers took over the ParkRoyal, the hotel was to be managed by French company, Accor Asia Pacific Ltd (AAPC) under the Novatel brand. At that time, Accor managed 2,098 hotels worldwide. The Auckland hotel had been difficult to sell while it was on leasehold land, but the Kumars had “got in quickly” when the land had changed to freehold in a deal with the Auckland City and Regional Councils which gave the Councils some adjoining buildings in return (Sunday Star-Times, 24/4/93, “Over the moon at Parkroyal purchase”, p.C13). The current deal is part of an Australasian sale of six hotels all owned by the Kumars (the “Royal Brothers” after their company Royal Brothers Pte of Singapore) for a total of $A184 million ($NZ210 million). The Australian hotels are the Novatel Brisbane (and adjoining car park); the Mercure Hotel, Brisbane and an adjacent office building to be redeveloped as an Ibis hotel; Mercure Hotel, Perth; and Princes Hotel, Perth. AACP manages more than 120 hotels in Australasia, but listed Tourism Asset Holdings Ltd early in 1996, retaining a 40% shareholding with its own shareholders owning a further 20%. TAHL, which took over 18 of Accor’s Australian hotels, is looking for further hotels to add to its collection (Press, 3/1/97, “Queenstown, Auckland hotels sold to operator”, p.19; 4/1/97, “Aust hotel firm keen on more purchases”, p.48). Cerebos Gregg’s and Rio Beverages Ltd set up New Juice Ltd Cerebos Gregg’s Ltd, of Japan, and Rio Beverages Ltd, of indeterminate pedigree, have approval to set up New Juice Ltd with a 50% shareholding each. Their valuation of the new company is suppressed but Reuters put it at $4.2 million with a turnover of $32 million a year (Press, 11/1/97, “Cerebos-Rio merger”, p.24). Cerebos Gregg’s is owned 50% by Cerebos Pacific Ltd of Singapore, which in turn is 84% owned by Suntory of Japan. The acquisition of the 50% shareholding by Cerebos Gregg’s “is the result of Cerebos Gregg’s and Rio Beverages combining their resources and expertise in the production, packaging and distribution of fruit beverages.” In other words they are merging their fruit drink and juice businesses. Morgan and Banks of Australia buys remaining 65% of Aotearoa branch Morgan and Banks Ltd, an Australian public company, and its Aotearoa subsidiary Maldon Holdings Ltd, have approval to acquire 100% of Morgan and Banks Ltd of Aotearoa. The Australian company had previously owned 35.5% of the Aotearoa company through Maldon Holdings. They describe their business as “human resource services”. The price was initially suppressed but it was released on appeal: $8,850,119. It turns out that the 35.5% the Australian company previously owned was acquired illegally: in April 1997, Morgan & Banks (Australia) got retrospective approval for buying 35.47% of Morgan & Banks Ltd (Aotearoa), for $2,119,125. Sitel of the U.S.A. buys Telebusiness New Zealand Ltd for $14 million Sitel Asia Pacific Holdings Pte Ltd, which is incorporated in Singapore but owned by Sitel Corporation of Omaha, U.S.A., has approval to acquire Telebusiness New Zealand Ltd for $14,395,000 worth of shares in Sitel Corporation. “Sitel has business experience and acumen in the teleservicing marketing field and … such experience is likely to increase the productivity of Telebusiness New Zealand Ltd and introduce the benefit of global networks to the company.” First Brands of the U.S.A. buys Zendel Battery Co from National Foods In a decision originally almost totally suppressed, First Brands Corporation of Delaware, U.S.A., gained approval to acquire Zendel Battery Co. Ltd from NationalPak Ltd, a subsidiary of National Foods Ltd of Australia, for a price “yet to be determined”.
CBD New Zealand Ltd buys Jetset Centre, Auckland, for $12,500,000 CBD New Zealand Ltd, owned by Westpac Banking Corporation of Australia, and New Zealand Guardian Trust Company Ltd, has approval to acquire the Jetset Centre, 48 Emily Place, Auckland, for $12,500,000 from Aral Property Holdings Ltd of Singapore and Hong Kong. It will be managed by CBD New Zealand Management Ltd. “CBD New Zealand Ltd has been established to target investment in quality commercial properties in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch… it is proposed to publicly float CBD New Zealand Ltd later this year at which time it is likely to cease being an ‘overseas person’”. Waihi gold mining companies buy more land for the Martha Hill Mine As in February, March and October 1996, more land is being acquired for the Waihi Gold Mine in and around Waihi. The purchase of a 35 hectare block of land has been approved from two private individuals for $200,000. The purchases are all by Waihi Gold Company Nominees Ltd of Australia, which “holds rural and urban land in and around Waihi as trustee for the participants in the Waihi Gold Mining joint venture.” It is owned 28.35% each by Waihi Mines Ltd and Welcome Gold Mines Ltd, 27.84% by AUAG Resources Ltd, and 15.46% by Martha Mining Ltd. All of these companies are Australian owned except AUAG Resources, which is owned in Aotearoa.
This is a different purpose from previous acquisitions, which were to extend the mine itself. Those would have allowed 165 people to continue employment; despite the land purchases it looks like 15 people have already lost their jobs. Macraes buys 1,592 ha. more land at Macraes Flat, Otago In a decision originally almost totally suppressed (in keeping with Macraes’ practice), Macraes Mining Company Ltd has approval to acquire 1,592 hectares of land at Macraes Flat, Otago “as part of the ongoing identification of gold resources at the Macraes Gold Project“. The land is being purchased for $2,000,000 from B. G. O’Connell. Macraes Mining is “approximately 39%” owned by Union Gold Mining NL of Australia. Izard Irwin of the U.S.A. buys 28 ha. of land by its Wellsford factory Izard Irwin International Ltd, a subsidiary of The Irwin Company Inc, in turn owned by American Tool Companies Inc of the U.S.A., has approval to buy 28 hectares of land for $530,000, adjoining its Wellsford, Auckland manufacturing plant and factory.
Singapore company buys Foxton land occupied by BTR Nylex Scottie Holdings Ltd owned by Mr William Cheng of Singapore has approval to buy eight hectares of land in Foxton from Oakstone Land Investment Ltd for $4,000,000 plus GST for commercial property leasing. The land, on the corner of Duncan Street and Ladies Mile, is leased by BTR Nylex Operations (NZ) Ltd which employs over 200 people in Foxton. Coca-Cola Amatil buys one hectare of land to expand its Auckland Head Office Coca-Cola Amatil (N.Z.) Ltd, owned by Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd of Australia, has approval to buy one hectare of land on the corner of Waipuna Road and The Oasis, Mt Wellington, Auckland, for $1,100,000. The land “is adjacent to that already owned by CCANZ which is used as its Head Office for its New Zealand operation”. It is “predominantly vacant” and the company has “a view to expanding their operations”. The land, together with CCANZ’s existing site, exceeds five hectares.
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